Libya: Govt regrets air strikes

Yashwant Sinha opposes military intervention by outside forces,but BJP yet to take a stand.

As diplomatic tempers flared over the bombing of a building in Muammar Gaddafis compound,India on Tuesday regretted air strikes over Libya,calling upon all parties to abjure use of violence. The need of the hour,it said,was cessation of armed conflict. We view with grave concern the ongoing violence,strikes and deteriorating humanitarian situation in Libya, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna told reporters.

Opposing military intervention by outside forces in Libya,Former External Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said on Monday that India should try to rally support at the United Nations Security Council to build up international opinion against the use of force. His party,however,maintained a studied silence on the issue.

While qualifying his statement as a personal opinion,Sinha said that he was against regime change through military intervention by outside forces. India,he said,should play its role as a member of the UN Security Council and get together with like-minded countries and try and build international opinion in favour of non-military intervention. Sinha said that he,by and large,agreed with the Indian governments approach.

When contacted to seek the partys view on the bombardment and the UPA governments approach,including New Delhi abstaining from voting on a UN resolution on Libya,a BJP spokesman declined to comment,saying that the party has not yet formulated its position. Top sources in the BJP said the party has not yet discussed the issue,but at least one other top leader said that the French-led aerial bombardment was equally bad as the bombing of rebel strongholds by Muammar Gaddafis forces. Its a tricky situation. We cannot support Gaddafi neither can we accept what the US and other western countries are doing, a leader explained.

Unlike the BJP,the Left parties have strongly condemned the aerial bombardment by NATO forces calling it a dangerous act of aggression. They have dubbed it as a gross violation of Libyas sovereignty and a calculated intervention in an internal conflict to bring about regime change and install a puppet regime there. Arguing that Western nations has no compunction in resorting to force to secure its interests in oil-rich Libya and the Middle East,the CPM has asked India to demand a review of the UNSC resolution,which it said has been utilised by the NATO for the attack. The CPI,on the other hand,asked the government to demand through UN an immediate halt to the aerial bombing on innocent peoples.